Lessons learned from autonomous sciencecraft experiment

Abstract

An Autonomous Science Agent has been flying onboard the Earth Observing One Spacecraft since 2003. This software enables the spacecraft to autonomously detect and responds to science events occurring on the Earth such as volcanoes, flooding, and snow melt. The package includes AI-based software systems that perform science data analysis, deliberative planning, and run-time robust execution. This software is in routine use to fly the EO-1 mission. In this paper we briefly review the agent architecture and discuss lessons learned from this multi-year flight effort pertinent to deployment of software agents to critical applications.